Starch & Design Board
 

I'm weird, I know, I really like ironing. I iron everything (except jeans!), even T-shirts. I love that clean crisp finish and the smell of freshly pressed laundry, but I had never used starch before I began quilting and found it recommended here on the board. I quickly fell in love with the way it makes cutting more accurate and piecing less prone to distortion (especially when I'm using novelty fabrics) but I've run into a couple of problems.

1. Starched pieces will not stick to my design board so I have to pin them.
2. Fabric can get really slippery if I really heavily starch it and sometime cause my ruler to slide when I'm cutting (this, I can fix easily with grippy things on the ruler, I know, so maybe it's not so much of a problem).
3. The starch I've been using repels marking pens and pencils. Chalk works okay but still comes off quite easily.

I've been using spray startch that I buy at the grocery store, the kind sold for ordinary laundry use. If I used homemade starch mixed from cornstarch would it be better in terms of sticking to the design board and marking the pieces?

Because it is so humid in Japan for a good part of the year and mold will grow on anything vaguely organic, I've been reluctant to try mixing my own from cornstarch or potato flour. Also, I do not want to attract the abundant local bug life to my stash.
Do any of you have a recommendation for a mold-resistant, bug-repelling starch?

Thanks in advance.

I don't use spray starch because it's made from the stuff bugs and rodents like to eat...... I wouldn't use starch of any kind. I do use spray sizing.... that's not made of flour or corn starch...... read the label. I don't think it would solve the problem of not sticking to your design board, etc..... but perhaps you need to spray a little less. After all, the spray is supposed to give a smoother finish and that's what it's doing for you..... can't have your cake and eat it too, I guess.

I do have the Mary Ellens Best Press on hand, but find I have a spray bottle with water on my ironing board. I iron a good number of dress shirts and find the water does as good of a job as something purchased.

Are you are able to get Best Press in Japan? If so you will find it is the bestest ever:thumbup: Ot sure if Joanns ships over seas but you can get a gallon with a 40% off coupon.

I love my Best Press. I started using it for quilting/sewing but now use it on my clothes too.

I wash my fabric when I get it home, but only starch it when I'm getting ready to cut it for a project. After my project is complete, I launder the quilt. this way, I'm not storing starched items for a long time. I've never had the problems you mention, so I think that you are very heavily starching. Might want to ease up a bit. My stuff sticks to the design wall, no problem.
It's interesting. My husband is Japanese and he starches everything, because his mom starched everything. She said traditionally, they starched a lot of items because they had all the starchy water left over from rinsing rice (she always used StaFlo). There are a lot of Japanese items I can think of that are heavily starched from obi to mizuhiki. I'm wondering if there is a local product you can use...

You're not weird. I LOVE to iron -- I find it sooooooooo relaing! I don't use starch, tho. I use sizing & much prefer it.